Unconditionally
by Seito
Summary: She thought her son had outgrew imaginary friends years ago. "Sora, why are you taking two ice cream bars?" "One's for Roxas, mom." "Roxas?"


"For the both of us... you're gonna... live. You'll be... my living legacy."

- Zack Fair

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

She thought her son had outgrew imaginary friends years ago. There were fond memories of Sora always insisting on two servings of food, two of the same toys, matching clothes for an imaginary friend named Ventus. It had stopped years ago though but now it seemed to be back. She watched with great amusement as Sora tried to sneak out two ice cream bars out of the fridge.

"Sora, why are you taking two ice cream bars?" she asked, amusement in her tone betrayed the stern look on her face.

Sora scrunched his nose, glancing at the two ice cream bars in his hand and said, "One's for Roxas, mom."

That silly boy. He didn't even had the galls to look guilty. "Roxas?" she asked. "Another one of your imaginary friends?"

It was the wrong thing to say. She watched as anger and hurt flashed across her son's face before it settled into a tired resignation. "Roxas, mom," Sora huffed. "We went over this."

The name settled on the tip of her tongue. She recalled it to be one of the names her son had told her about during his disappearance. Frankly, she had a hard time believing him. It wasn't like Sora would lie (she raised him with a strong sense of honesty) but it was so… impossible sounding (creatures that stole your heart? other worlds? a key-shaped weapon?) that there were days where she forgot the adventure he had told her. It seemed like a child's fantasy (_but how do you explain how you forgot about your son for a year?_).

"Nevermind mom," Sora said with a grin that reach his eyes. He put back the ice cream bars in the freezer.

"You could still…"

Sora shook his head. "If Roxas can't have one there's no point." Without waiting for her to reply, he left, out the door and down the street.

"Sora!"

xXxXx

"Watching the boys Kairi?"

Kairi broke her attention away from where Sora and Riku were playing in the sand to meet her eyes. "Mrs. Irino," she greeted. "Of course, it's always fun to watch Sora and Riku spar. Your son is getting better."

She watched as Sora evaded Riku's attack before disarming his best friend. Before everything went dark, before she forgot about her son for a year, there was a time where Sora could come home, complaining that he could never beat Riku. Oh how he had grown.

"Yes he is," she said quietly. She noticed the sketchbook beside the younger girl. In it was a simple childish scribble of Sora and Riku's spar. "I didn't know you drew, Kairi."

Kairi looked startled, before she answered, "I'm not. Namine does."

Namine? Destiny Islands were a small place where everyone knew everyone. But she didn't recognize the name. "Who is Namine?" she asked.

Kairi's smile strained. "Just a friend."

xXxXx

It startled her the day she saw that Sora had two shadows instead of one.

xXxXx

She frowned as she found the two tickets in the black jacket pocket that she was washing. "Sora?" she called out.

"Yeah mom?" Sora shouted back from living room, entranced by a tv show. She could hear the sound of explosions and fighting from the show, echoing throughout the house.

"I thought you said Riku and Kairi couldn't go the movies with you today," she said. Sora had been talking excitedly about going to the opening showing of the movie had been released today. When she had asked if Riku and Kairi were going with him, Sora had shaken his head and they had been busy.

"I went with Roxas!"

"Roxas?" she mumbled to herself. "Sora always had such an active imagination."

xXxXx

It was equally as startling the day she found Sora watching a skateboard move by itself.

Sora had mentioned magic to her, but nothing like this. If she tilted her head a certain way, in the gleaming sunlight she could have sworn she could see someone on the board.

xXxXx

"Sora?"

Sora jumped, turning toward her. It was then she noticed the impatient scowl on his face, a look that wasn't really Sora's. Her son's normally bright blue eyes were a shade deeper. If she looked, really truly looked, she could see a faint overlay of another person over her son. Blond hair, white clothes and blue eyes.

"Roxas?" she tried.

Blue eyes widened in surprise. "You can tell?" It wasn't Sora's voice that answered her.

"I… sorta?" she offered, hesitantly. She stomped down on the urge to run screaming out of the house; that her son had been possessed by a spirit. This was her son! Possessed by a ghost or not, this was her son. Fear and logic did little to stand in the way of love. Little by little Sora's adventure was becoming real in more ways than she knew. It was getting easier to wrap her mind around the sheer impossibility of it all. If this was a side effect of his adventure, she would not love him (_them_) less for it.

Roxas' expression turned fond. "Sora fell asleep at the beach. It looked like a storm was about to start." Right on cue there was a clap of thunder before the sound of rain hitting the roof descended. "I didn't want to wake him. He hasn't been sleeping well."

No, he wasn't. It wasn't uncommon for her to find Sora awake in the middle of the night or in the morning to find him in the living room curled up on the couch instead of his bed.

"I don't… understand," she tried. "How… are you? Why?" She waved her arms, trying to explain what she meant. It… didn't make sense. Only that it did.

A wistful expression crossed Roxas' face before it settled on a weary look. "Do you remember what Sora told you about the heartless?" he asked softly.

"They were creatures that stole people's hearts."

"And nobodies?"

She hesitated, racking her brain for the answer. "They're… what happens to the people who lost their hearts to the heartless?"

Roxas nodded. "Yes the stronger the heart the more human-like the nobody remains."

Her heart dropped. Surely Roxas was not implying what she thought he was?

"For a brief while, Sora became a heartless. I'm the result of that."

She stumbled, sinking down on the couch as her knees gave out. At one point her baby was a heartless? How? Didn't Sora tell her over and over again, that it was nearly impossible to regain your heart once that it was lost? "But he's still here," she blurted out, panic rising. Her heart pounded in her chest; her hands felt clammy and reached out in an aborted attempt to gather her son in her arms.

"Yes. Don't worry Sora isn't going anywhere, he isn't a heartless or a nobody. His heart is perfectly intact," Roxas said softly. He took a seat next to her, close enough to bump his (Sora's) knees with her. It was so strange to see her son like this. It was Sora's body, but the afterimage of Roxas was getting clearer the more she looked.

"I don't understand," she said, burying her head in her hands. Sora never mentioned this in his story.

Roxas didn't look at her, playing with the worn blue pillow on the couch instead. "I wasn't there, but Sora and I share memories. From what I know, in order to save Kairi, Sora became a heartless for a short while. In return, Kairi was the one who called Sora's heart back, restoring him to normal. But that short moment was enough to create me. I woke up an entire world away, unaware of even who Sora was."

"You had your own body?" she asked. Her worldview was rocking again. Very little made any sense to her and Sora just kept proving her the impossible over and over again.

Roxas shook his head. "Not anymore. Sora and I, we're two sides of the same coin. I wasn't whole without Sora, nor was Sora without me. Sora could have absorb me back entirely. Instead he chooses to treat me as a real person. It's nice."

She winced at those words, remembering all the time she had called Roxas an imaginary friend.

"It's okay," Roxas reassured her. "Sora is starting wake up."

With that, Roxas seemed to fade away as Sora blinked his eyes and looked around. "Huh, I'm back home. I guess Roxas must have walked us home."

"He did," she confirmed. '_Us_' rang in her head. There were… two of them.

Her son jumped, as if just noticing that he was sitting next to her. "Mom!" Sora's eyebrows furrowed together. "You talked to Roxas?" he asked.

"Yes." Her son had left on an adventure of a lifetime battling monsters and saving the universe. It was a strange and impossible tale; one she was still coming to terms about believing. However, there was one thing she was now absolutely sure about.

She now had two sons instead of one.

* * *

Something I pondered about, couple with a few fanfictions I had read made for an interesting plunny. I hadn't originally intended to tell this story from Sora's mother pov, but the ball kept rolling. I'm not entirely happy with the ending but it felt like it should have ended there. I did want to expand on Ventus and Roxas' similar appearance but perhaps another time. I do hope you enjoy. Tell me what you think? :3


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